CLAY COUNTY, Fla. — A Middleburg woman is still recovering from a second crash while riding her bike nearby her home on County Road 220 in Clay County.
"[The bike has] been put in here," Gail Murphy explained as she walked to her shed. "It’s all dusty and dirty.”
Murphy’s red bike now sits in the shed. It's an unfamiliar place for the avid cyclist, but it’s the doctor’s orders.
“He wouldn’t let me go back to riding the bicycle," she explained.
Back in October, Murphy went on a ride on CR 220.
“The drivers were starting to pile up. They were getting angry with me, and they tried to push me off the side of the road," Murphy said. "So, finally, I tried to get off and when I did I hit the curb and I flipped. And, my helmet went into my head and I've got breaks all the way across my forehead.”
She says she also broke her nose and femur, and dislocated her shoulder.
October's incident wasn’t Murphy’s first crash. She also received multiple injuries just months before, Murphy says, in a hit-and-run crash on the same roadway.
Murphy has lived in other areas of Northeast Florida. She says she’s never felt as unsafe on her bike as she has in Middleburg.
“It would be nice if the city would stand up and do something about it," she explained.
Murphy would like to see more investment in infrastructure for bike lanes and sidewalks to make the growing city more rider-friendly for cyclists.